TIJUANA, Mexico _ In the span of 48 hours, 31 murders were reported last weekend to local investigators and police in Tijuana, pushing the total body count in one of the most violent cities in the world to 1,331 so far this year.
The particularly bloody weekend included an ambush at a house party in Colonia Libertad, a block away from the U.S.-Mexico border, killing five.
Police say a white Lincoln SUV drove by the house around 11:15 p.m. on Canon Zapata and sprayed bullets from an AR-15-style rifle.
Three of the victims were women and two were men, police said.
In a news release, the Baja California Attorney General's Office identified two of the victims by their first names only. Spanish-language news reports identified the two male victims as Cristian Ricardo Zuniga Ledezma, 20, and Mario Eduardo Alonso Carrillo, 17.
Two others were injured during the drive-by shooting and taken to a hospital with serious injuries, authorities said.
A short time after the shooting at the party, police reported four nearly simultaneous attacks in Colonia Campestre Murua, which left at least four more people dead.
The bodies of two more victims were discovered behind a commercial plaza on Boulevard 2000 in the early hours of Sunday.
The other seven murders occurred in various neighborhoods throughout Tijuana between Saturday and Sunday, police said.
Another 11 people were killed between Sunday and Monday, according to the Baja California prosecutor office.
Investigators said the root cause of the bloodshed follows trends from 2018 with lower-level drug dealers battling over street corners to control the local methamphetamine market in Tijuana, a city of about 1.8 million residents.
Law enforcement officials also say the rise of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, or CJNG, which has gained power by forging alliances with remnants of the once-powerful Arellano Felix Cartel, has contributed to the violence. This summer, the organization is trying to seize complete control of Tijuana from the weakened Sinaloa Cartel after the downfall of its famous leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
A March 2018 policy report from the University of San Diego's Justice in Mexico project described the violent CJNG as "an offshoot of the Sinaloa Cartel that has managed to re-brand itself, consolidate splintered criminal networks and emerge as one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Mexico."
"The CJNG has successfully taken advantage of a series of power vacuums resulting from the disruption of leadership structures in Mexican organized crime groups," the policy brief stated.
The Mexican nonprofit group Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice dubbed Tijuana "the most violent city in the world," based on the average number of homicides per 100,000 residents in 2018.
Tijuana topped the list with 138 killings per 100,000 Tijuana residents last year, averaging about seven murders per day, the report said. The report analyzes only homicides that are reported to police, which could skew its findings in comparison to border cities like Reynosa, on the other side of the border from McAllen, Texas, where powerful drug cartels involved in violent clashes have left a death toll that may be under-reported.
In comparison, there were 34 homicides in San Diego last year, or slightly more than two killings per 100,000 people.
Director of Public Safety Marco Sotomayor said Monday that Tijuana is still on track to reduce murders from 2018 when drug rivalries pushed the number of homicides to a new record of more than 2,500.
Sotomayor said homicides have dropped by 2% so far this year. He stressed that it is important to compare the homicide data by months because certain months traditionally have higher numbers of homicides, a trend he said is true in many larger urban areas.
Sotomayor said different activities that happen during the summer, such as vacations and increased alcohol consumption, can lead to an increase in homicides. He added there are also increases in emergency calls and other crimes during the warmer summer months.
